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Article: Counterculture
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
- Author:
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COUNTERCULTURE
COUNTERCULTURE.
A stratum of American and western European culture that began in the mid-1960s. Its adherents, mostly white, young, and middle class, adopted a lifestyle that embraced personal freedom while rejecting the ethics of capitalism, conformity, and repressive sexual mores. The mainstream media sometimes referred to members of the counterculture as "hippies," "freaks," or "flower children."
The counterculture was no more a "culture" than the diverse antiwar movement was a "movement." Rather, the term was applied by social critics attempting to characterize the widespread rebellion of many western youths against the values and behaviors espoused by their parents. ...